write to me
by asiastana
Summary: soulmate au where when one writes on the skin, the other can see. [complete]
1. write to me

**write to me**

It starts when she's six years old and she's playing dolls up in her room. The word _hello_ scribes itself on her arm, the letters are messy and childish just as if she's written them herself. But Marinette knows she doesn't have a marker in her hand for she is literally holding her doll. The green letters impishly tease her as her heart beats. For a moment, she closes her eyes, screws them so tight she can see little spots dance on the backs of her eyelids.

With a careful breath, she slowly pops one blue eye open and more words are added _hello. hello? can you read me?_

At the addition, she screams so loud and runs down the stairs with tears falling down, her footsteps thudding as she tries to runaway. She shouts and wails and hiccups until she finds her mother in front of the stove making dinner and tugs forcibly on her white shirt.

"Mama! There's a ghost writing on my arm!"

Ever worried, Sabine looks down and to Marientte's surprise she grins a knowing smile, the one where her dimple appears at the corner of her mouth.

Kneeling down, Sabine traces the ghostly letters on her daughter's arm before she kisses her forehead. "That's no ghost, dear," she begins. "Just your soulmate."

And that is when Marinette learns about soulmates, learns about the messages and drawings they can leave on your skin. Because in her world, soulmates are threaded through ink, marked with love and affection in an instant.

Looking down at her arm again, more green words appear and a drawling of a frowny face. _i'm sorrr if i scareded you :(_

To that she, giggles and wipes her snot and tears away with the back of her hand. When she dashes up stairs, she replies.

 _it ok. i'm a big girl!_

* * *

When she's nine she realizes that you can't exchange names with your soulmate. No matter how many times she's tried to tell him, it always end up as _hello my name is _!_ To say that it's annoying is an understatement, because all Marinette wants to do is just tell her soulmate her name and learn his in return.

Instead, she tries her best to describe what she looks like, mentioning she has black hair and blue eyes. Apparently, he has green eyes and blond hair and looks just like his mother.

Sometimes, late at night, she will feel the writing on her arm and wake up to see that he left a note. _Mom is really sick again and Dad is so angry._ On nights like those, she she tells him of her dreams to become a great fashion designer and tries to redraw all the outfits she wants to make for him.

It doesn't really work well on her thin arm, but she can tell that it makes him feel better.

* * *

When she is eleven, Marinette doesn't hear from him. She writes to him every day.

 _soulmate are you okay?_

But he never responses, never tells her if he is okay or if he's not.

Some days when she's scared, she wonders if he died and sometimes she asks him to tell her he's alive.

But that reply doesn't come either…so she stops writing him all together.

* * *

On her thirteenth birthday, right when she's about to blow the candle, she feels the all but forgotten itching sear her arm. In haste, she shoves up her sleeve and in a room filled with family, she breaks down and cries.

 _happy birthday…I miss you_ is the best present she got that year.

* * *

When she's fourteen, strange things start to happen because now she's a superhero. She can't tell anyone, not even him. Though she wants to, but she can't.

She will keep him safe.

And besides, when you're fourteen, there are more important things to worry about then when you're going to save Paris next. For example, the newest sentence that appears on her arm when she's trying to do redo the homework she keeps failing.

 _have you been in love?_

He must be doing homework too for his words are inky and black, but it doesn't make it hurt any less. A part of her wells up in rage because it's like he doesn't care about the ink that connects him: hers and his.

She bites her lips and tries to swallow the lump in throat, swallow the betrayal that is oozing from her heart.

Her arm itches again as she remains silent, gripping her pencil she can almost feel it snap.

 _because i think i found you and i think if it's you, that i'm falling in love with you_.

Breath hitches in her lungs, stopping her anger right in it's tracks.

 _so i'm going to do something and hopefully it will be you, okay?_

* * *

It's their weekly patrol, hers and Chat Noir, when she finally pulls herself up to the Eiffel Tower.

Annoyed, she keeps playing with her bangs when she hears him. "Don't think you look purr-ty this evening, My Lady?"

To that, blue eyes meet green and the hero in red can only laugh as she pauses her preening. "Okay, don't make fun of me," she starts, "but my soulmate is an idiot."

He steps closer, a little smile wanting to form at his lips, but it doesn't. "Oh?"

Huffing, Ladybug crosses her arms. "Yeah! Last night he's like…oh, I think I found you blah blah blah–let me draw this huge big symbol on our foreheads to find each other!"

Chat laughs, his eyes crinkling. "What?"

At this point, Ladybug is already caught up in a fit, "I know! It's so stupid and he just…wrote..THIS," she punctuates as she pushes her bangs up for him to see.

And what is hidden behind her hair is the world's worst pick up line: _did it h_ _urt when you fell from heaven?_

Chat Noir doesn't laugh, his jaw falling slack as he openly stares. From where she stands, Ladybug shuffles her feet, unsure what the problem is.

Seconds tick between them, a silence stretched longer than it needs to be for two friends. "Chat?"

But Chat Noir blinks and a smirk starts to bury itself into his cheeks. "Well?" he prompts. "Did it?"

Ladybug furrows her eyes. "Did what?"

And as he pushes up his bangs for her to see his forehead, he only mimics what's written on his skin. "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"

* * *

A/N: I decided to finally crosspost my soulmate au over here. It's a small series and is complete!


	2. and i'll write to you too

**and i'll write to you too**

He's six when he dreams of a girl with blue eyes and black hair whose smile is just as pretty as starlight. She's little like him, if not littler and he wants nothing more than to be her friend. So, when he wakes up from the most perfect dream where he holds her hand and they just play, he cries and mourns and shoutswhen he realizes he's all alone.

And just as all the parenting books say, your little one might just be the one who contacts their other half first, their eyes bright and their hearts eager. Babbling and crying and demanding for that special person to come back.

 _Why did they go away?_

No one knows how it began or why it happens, but it's common knowledge that one day when you're small and you're pure, your heart fills up with selfless love, innocent love that only children possess.

So that morning when his mother comes running in and sees Adrien's face covered in snot and his eyes are red, her smile softens.

And she tells him the story about soulmates and how you can write to them on your skin.

* * *

When he's nine, she's the best part of his day.

He wants to know her name, but it's okay that he doesn't know it yet. She has other names, just as good names.

 _The Girl Who Can Stitch and Sew_

 _The Girl Who Dreams Big_

 _The Girl Who Comforts Me When the World Sleeps_

Those are good names for her too.

* * *

When Adrien's eleven, he ignores the searing on his skin, ignores her words as she writes to him.

 _are you okay?_

There was once a promise made that they both would write everyday, but it's hard to love her when his mother is dead.

 _did you eat today?_

And it's harder to be a good friend to the living when dreams are just as good.

 _are you even alive?_

* * *

He's thirteen when he dreams again and knows that it's her.

This time she doesn't smile.

And neither does he because all he can see are the tears that come down her face from where she stands. His dream is dark and she's a darker spot and he knows it's all his fault.

So he wakes up, his heart pounding in his chest and writes the words as quickly as he can on his skin, welting the flesh when he presses the pen too hard.

 _happy birthday…I miss you_

Adrien almost thinks she won't reply, this nameless, faceless girl that he's tied to, but he feels it, her script better than a hug.

 _you're the worst soulmate thing ever…i missed you too._

* * *

He's fourteen when his arms are always covered in art late at night when they both should be doing math homework. There are flowers that wrap around his knuckles and hearts that dot his palms. Silly drawings of stupid faces and wonderful sketches of dresses she wants to make.

He's positive her name starts with an M because every now and there she leaves a monogram on the back of his palm near his thumb and it makes him smile because it's really loopy.

* * *

He's also fourteen when he becomes Chat Noir and life is stranger than soulmates that can write on the skin.

But this new power that drives him to her, this girl he doesn't know by face, but by soul that throws his entire world out of order.

And he's reminded of dreams when he was a child, of a girl whose eyes are bluer than the sky and whose smile sparkles like starlight.

And she's here and he's here and to put it lamely, it's love at first sight.

* * *

"Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" he asks, his cheesy pick-up line ringing between them as Ladybug stands, her bluer than blue eyes wide.

He drops his hand slowly and his bangs fall back into place, just as hers have and waits because he doesn't know what to say.

And finally, she breathes, letting go of a breath that froze her into place. "It's you?" her voice whispers, barely a breeze.

He swallows–a lump of emotion caught in his throat–and grins, joy banging his heart against his sternum. "It's me."

Again, Ladybug doesn't move for a moment, taking in all this information, but when she takes a step forward, he does the same.

Time stretches between them and he wonders what she'll do.

However, he doesn't need to wait long because her palm goes straight to his forehead and she smacks him so suddenly his teeth chatter together.

"The hell!" he shouts as he doubles over in surprise and goes to soothe his forehead as she giggles.

Green eyes narrow and search for her blue. She sticks out her tongue. "Serves you right for making me go through that all day."

And he can't stop the little smile grin that finds it's way on his face. "Well, I wanted to make sure you were thinking about me."

Ladybug rolls her eyes and goes to grab her yo-yo. He's trying to scamper himself up straight when she's already tossed the damned thing some where far away.

But before she goes, she stops to smile, blue eyes find green in the night's darkness. "Next time, why don't you just ask me out on a date?"

Chat Noir is left alone staring longingly at the girl disappearing in the distance.

Hands falling his knees, he chuckles to himself. "Why didn't I just think of that?"

And with that, he follows.


	3. so I can finally meet you

**so I can finally meet you**

She's fourteen when she finds her soulmate, a young girl with a full heart and disbelief washing over her as she looks high above the city's skyline and sees him. And she knows it's him because there is her _M_ , loopy and it's tail curling much like a vine as it wraps around itself, on the back of his palm next to his thumb.

 _Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?_

He said that too, just last night high above a sleeping world where dreams are dreams and they keep the nightmares away. But when he said that, he was not posted on a billboard, his face composed and his stature poised.

For Chat Noir is everything but poised. He's silly and sweet and zany, but not poised. Not perfect, not composed, not programmed to be beautiful and out of reach.

And Adrien Agreste might be her classmate, a handsome classmate at that, but he's not _Chat_. He's kind, thoughtful, and shy. Not boisterous, not loud, not overwhelming.

And so her jaw remains dropped and she stares. Blue eyes bigger than dinner plates, with her neck cranked so far back, all Marinette can do is try to stitch the images of Chat Noir, Adrien Agreste and her soulmate together.

It's kinda not working.

 _It's me._

* * *

 _do you miss me yet?_ makes her jump from her tumbling thoughts, but Marinette can't stop the small smile that travels onto her face.

 _sometimes more than others_ , she replies, giggling as she imagines a pouty face–whose's she's not sure, but it's still worth giggling over–and quickly adds _but i do._

* * *

Marinette is fourteen when she walks into her classroom Monday morning, her mind still trying to piece three boys together into one: hers.

She's late as she always is, Ladybug's luck only contained in a suit of red and refuses to do double duty for real life too. A blond spot she never noticed before catches her eyes and just like on the poster board, all Marinette can do is stare.

Because Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir/her soulmate are literally in the same room as her and…

"…you're just beautiful."

And the words slip out out of her mouth, running like water that won't stop. The same can be said for Adrien as he snaps his head up into Marinette's direction, green eyes wide and a blush flooding his cheeks (not electric green eyes, but familiar nonetheless).

There must be six feet between them, but it feels like six miles, six long miles fenced in by embarrassment.

Her soulmate swallows and tries to smiles. "Thanks, Marinette…" he mumbles before ducking his head back down.

As she races up the stairs to her seat, all she can push out of her mouth is "No problem."

But it's just as horrible.

* * *

Marinette doesn't tell him she's found him at school that day.

* * *

 _you've been quiet lately._

The words write themselves on her arm, swirling in a circle, the beginning starting in the middle. The early morning sun glimmers through her window and reflects off her mirror, searing her eyes like how those words sear her skin.

Marinette doesn't know the words to explain what she's feeling…

…so she doesn't write him back.

* * *

There's an akuma for the first time in two weeks since she's found her soulmate. And its been thirteen days since she's learned that her soulmate is also her classmate.

Three personalities that just don't add up and she can't be trying to figuring out this particular equation when she has Paris to save.

Ladybug wears her mask, dons the red suit to hide the confusion that swims through her soul and only speaks to Chat Noir when necessary.

Because she doesn't have words for him spoken or written.

* * *

She's about to leap off the building, her yo-yo pitched in her hand when a staff clatters loudly on the ground beside her. It echoes in the silence of their non-existent conversations.

Chat Noir speaks, hushed anger rolling off his tongue, "What gives, Bug?"

Ladybug turns around, but she feels naked, exposed and in her mind, on the rooftop she can only see herself as Marinette. And she can only see him as Adrien.

 _They don't even know each other._

"I just…" she starts, her words fading as she looks away. "I'm just so confused right now."

There's an intake of breath, and he takes a step back, his foot crunches the gravel on the rooftop. "About?"

Though her blue eyes are shrouded by her bangs, she knows he can see them. She knows that he can see the blue of her eyes and instead of seeing the sky, he sees her fears painted as clear as day.

She doesn't even get to open her mouth and word doesn't even fall out, but they both heard it loud and clear.

 _Us_.

So, he runs away.

* * *

The billboard is taken down today.

Her loopy _M_ no longer displayed for all of Paris to see on Adrien's hand.

* * *

It's late at night and there is no searing on her skin.

Marinette has been fifteen for two days and he didn't wish her happy birthday.

Not that she blames him, because she doesn't. Even as Ladybug and Chat Noir, they're not speaking.

Which a part of her is okay with, but the other part of her hates it.

* * *

It is sunrise, bright and golden like Chat/Adrien's/her soulmate's hair. Tikki smooths her brow bone, laughs when Marinette's eyelashes tickle her when she flutters them open.

They rest there, kwami and charge, for a brief moment before Tikki breaks the quiet. "You should tell him the truth."

As she stares up at the ceiling, Marinette nods her head.

"I know."

* * *

When Marinette comes to school today, she makes sure she gets there early.

Just like she knows Adrien will be on Tuesdays.

And when she walks into the classroom, all she can see is that his head is down, buried in his arms. Her steps are light as she tiptoes over and more than ever, she wishes she could just touch his hair.

But she doesn't.

Instead, she pulls up right next to him, purposefully dragging Nino's chair so that it shrieks a little in the quiet room. To that, Adrien jolts awake, purple bags under his eyes and clutches a hand over his heart.

With a deep breath, he finally calms himself and gives her a gentle smile. His voice is so soft when he says, "Hi Marinette."

(It makes her heart twist).

She offers her own smile, a mix between shame and joy that compose her entire being lately. Shame because she's been ignoring him, but joy that he's near.

 _We're corresponding shapes_ , she remembers he told her once. Made from the same clay to compliment each other. And Marinette has to agree as she sits next to him that they do indeed fit.

However, her daydreams are interrupted when he clears his throat and it brings her back to reality.

She's right next to her soulmate.

To a boy she might or might not know.

But to know something means you have to learn and right now, there's nothing more she wants to do.

So, she smiles and leans on her hand as the room fills with people. "What's your favorite color?"

* * *

It's three a.m. when Marinette gives up sleeping, her mind muddled with three different smiles that surround one boy.

 _I heard Adrien laugh today_ , she thinks. And the day's events only a reminder as rain beats softly against her skylight.

But of course he only laughed when she was caught in his umbrella, the one he lent her because he's a nice person.

 _I heard my soulmate laugh today_ , she thinks again and a dopey smile makes its way to her face. _And it was wonderful._

* * *

Tonight Ladybug climbs up the Eiffel Tower, her heart drumming against her rib cage as she hoists herself onto the platform. Chat Noir is already there, his back facing her.

His posture is tense, stiff even and she's reminded of photos she's looked up of Adrien–ever still image she could find.

She can't help but hug herself as she walks towards him, her feet feeling like concrete. But she finds the courage to stand right beside him and knows when his eyes flicker over to her because she can feel the burn of his gaze.

She takes a deep breath and tries to find her own smile, but she's scared. Yet being scared got her in the first place, so she swallows the bile that tries to rise up.

"I'm sorry," she whispers simply. "I'm sorry," she repeats and this time blue meets green and she refuses to look away despite that she's folding into herself as she hugs herself tighter.

"Hey, hey," she hears him say as his face falls into a panic as she continues to crumble. "Hey."

But now her vision is blurry and she's just so tired and confused but he's here–three boys that are actually one and it's all finally clicking into place.

He awkwardly pulls her into a hug and for once, it doesn't feel like there are miles between them and it's best awkward hug she's ever had in her entire life. "Don't cry now, LB," he tries to say as he pats her back. "…I literally don't know what to do with crying girls."

To that she laughs and picks her face up that was pressed against his chest, "Well, making them laugh is a good start."

Chat Noir grins in the light, his teeth model white. "Noted."

With a hum, she digs her face back into his chest and throws her arms around him. He holds her just as tight and finally it seems like all the confusion that has surrounded her heart has dissipated.

 _It's you._

And that's all she needs him to be.

* * *

She wakes up late like she normally does and rushes out the door with a bun in her mouth. She knows that her soulmate told her _good morning_ , but he must have had his morning shower for there is no longer a mark on her body.

Marinette dashes into the classroom with a few minutes to spare, but pauses for a moment to smile at Adrien. Big and broad like her heart as it fills up with affection for the one she loves.

Because she's right here and he's right here and that's exactly where they're supposed to be.

He returns the smile because he's kind, she knows, but that's okay.

Because today's the day.

* * *

It's break and his hands are in her perfect line of sight from her seat. He's chatting with Nino and Alya is catching up on some sleep.

With an inky red pen, she sketches her familiar loopy _M_ on the place by his thumb. Both boys stop and watch with wonderment as the symbol forms on Adrien's skin magically.

"Your soulmate, huh?" Nino asks.

Adrien blushes and rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah, this is kinda her thing. I think her name starts with a M."

But before Nino can reply, Kim and Max call him and he excuses himself for a moment. Leaving Adrien alone.

Grabbing a pen of his own, she can feel his words sear her skin as he writes to her. _miss you_ he simply says.

Her heart is about to burst in her chest because she's never seen him write her before, but the way he's looking at his message is so filled with love that she can't help herself from speaking up.

"Did it hurt?" she prompts and catches him off guard.

Like a day not too long ago, Adrien snaps his head towards her and tilts it to the side with question. "Did what?"

And from her seat, her smile only grows as she shows him the back of her hand, the loopy _M_ and _miss you_ plain to see, watching with joy bubbling as his eyes go wide at their meaning.

"Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"


	4. ps thanks for the letters

**p.s. thanks for the letters**

Adrien is fifteen when he finds his soulmate, a girl with blue eyes like the sky and hair darker than the night. Two things that are total opposites, but they frame her face perfectly as she stares down at him from where sits at her desk.

 _Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?_

Because on her hand, displayed for him to see is his words _miss you_ and her most beloved loopy monogram _M_.

Time has stopped ticking, time has stopped moving and the whole world is being pulled away from under his feet because this girl is Ladybug. This girl is his soulmate.

And her name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

 _It's you_.

She's smiling and he wants to know how he has never seen it before, the stars that twinkle in her grin, the sky in her eyes that make him feel like he can fly. It's like he's dreaming, six years old and looking for his friend, but here she is and here he is and it's….everything he ever wanted.

The moment is filled with confirmation and potential and a promise of good things to follow.

Because she's right here.

 _She's always been right here._

But the teacher's voice sounds and time seizes forward, shoving him back into reality with blood rushing to his ear drums. The realization swirling in his head, the idea of being so close almost too much and he falls. Falls into the sleep in which her vision came, with her voice calling after him, like the dream where he first met her.

 _Will you be my friend?_

* * *

Adrien is fifteen years old when he wakes with a start, his heart thundering in his chest and all he sees is the white, white walls of the nurse's room. The back of his head is pounding, throbbing, but all he can do is smile and flops on the bed.

"I found her…"

Someone clears their throat and Adrien sits straight up again and sees Marinette blushing in the doorway. "Actually, I found you first…" She's clutching the door frame, her cheeks pink as she hides one half of her body from his sight. "That's why I was really weird for a while…."

He thinks of those weeks everything was rocky between them, her unanswered messages, her distance, her fear….it was only a taste of what he put her through a few years ago, but it still hurt.

He swings his legs over the edge of the bed and pats the seat next to him. "How did you find out?" His words are caught in the waves of emotion, questioning with earnest, but afraid to hear the answer.

She grins a bit, her smile slightly strained. It could be nervousness or newness, he thinks. He feels it too, but she walks over and sits beside him.

(Though there is definitely more than few inches between them and he just really, really wants to hold her.)

The mattress sinks with her added weight, but her eyes, her hair, her face are all so crystal clear. It's like his dreams are finally real, the words on his arms have manifested into a person to call his own and his heart filling to the brim with affection.

Through the corner of her eye, she catches his apparent staring and coves her face with her hands, trying to conceal a blush.

"Don't stare so much…" she whines, her feet tapping on the floor with glee, embarrassment, everything in between.

Adrien laughs and moves an inch or two farther away, a hand scratching the back of his neck. "I just…I'm the one who had the dream, you know…" he tells her honestly. "I dreamt of you first and I remember how badly I wanted to meet you and now–now you're here."

Through the slit of her fingers, she looks at him, blue eyes like gems and happiness pouring out of the window of her soul. It's his soul too and his soul is hers, forever bounded by something greater than what they are. Forever together by chance and strengthen by friendship.

Shyly, she uncovers her eyes and with a delicate hand that he's seen destroy evil and write loopy notes on his skin, her fingers brush against his. And he's reminded of the day when he lent her his umbrella, that same gesture where they touched for the briefest of seconds and he was never happier.

 _It's you, it's always been you_.

Her fingers trail over his knuckles, swirling and looping until they reach her monogram. She taps it once, twice, thrice before she speaks. "My _M_ made it into an ad campaign," she tells him. "The one where you're holding that brand of coffee. I saw it on a billboard."

That shocks him, the absurdity that that's how she discovers who it is and by now all he can do is laugh, the tension of the moment cut cleaning away and giggles and chuckles and joys spill out of him.

"That is the stupidest way to figure it out ever," he tells her between gasps, between the shatter moments of the wishes he had of them finding each other romantically.

She laughs too and bumps his shoulder. "It is slightly worst than writing on my forehead." Marinette then flicks him them, teasing and full of fun and he rubs the place she hit.

 _It's you, it's me, and we're just meant to be_.

She sighs and falls to lay on the back the bed. Adrien follows and his happy to find that both their hands wind up in the other's. Together they stare at the ceiling and he's reminded of all the times he's done that while waiting for his soulmate's reply.

In the school nurse's office, together they raised their joint hands to the sky, to the future, to things that have yet to come. There is magic between them, ties and ties that knot them together, weaving around their hands, weaving around their hearts.

 _My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I'm your soulmate._

The world around them is becoming brighter, becoming more in focus as his heart, his soul, and his entire being start to realign.

 _I'm Adrien Agreste and I'm yours._

"I love you."

 **the end**

* * *

A/N: omg, i have been so touched by all reviews guys! this story always ends up being a favorite! i'm glad you have liked it too!


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